Mission-Critical Resilience: How Lockheed Martin UK Secured its Water Supply with Water Direct
Lockheed Martin UK is the British arm of Lockheed Martin Corporation, a global defence technology company driving innovation and advancing scientific discovery. The company’s all-domain mission solutions and 21st Century security vision accelerate the delivery of transformative technologies, ensuring those they serve are always prepared.
Operating in a high-security environment, Lockheed Martin UK’s Ampthill facility relies on an uninterrupted water supply to maintain its mission-critical operations. Any disruption poses severe risks, including operational downtime that could compromise strict production targets, financial losses, and potential breaches of regulatory and security requirements.
Lockheed Martin UK turned to Water Direct, which delivered both an immediate emergency alternative water supply and implemented a long-term water resilience strategy with WaterTight – its contingency planning and business continuity solution.
To mitigate future water supply risks, Water Direct’s experts conducted a detailed site, operational and infrastructure audit, followed by a risk assessment. The assessment recommended practical advice and steps which included:
- Installation of Emergency Tapping Points – Strategically placed connections to facilitate efficient water delivery via bowsers.
- Tanker Breach Points – Enabling rapid on-site water replenishment, ensuring immediate access to alternative supplies during future disruptions.
- Emergency Site Management – A robust response plan to expedite the replenishment of the site’s water supplies in the event of an outage.
Key Highlights
- Rapid emergency response – During a water outage, Water Direct’s field technicians arrived on-site within two hours with alternative water supplies, ensuring uninterrupted operations.
- Operational losses avoided – The company reduced the risk of substantial financial losses and the displacement of nearly 350 staff by securing a dependable backup water supply.
- Regulatory compliance maintained – The company complied with health and safety standards and ensured protection against any violations of service level agreements.
With WaterTight in place, Lockheed Martin UK future-proofed its water supply and transformed its emergency response capabilities, preventing future risks.
As a result, when another incident occurred, the company was able to call Water Direct who dispatched security-approved field technicians within two hours, ensuring immediate access to emergency water supplies and temporary water storage units.
Jenny Quarterman said: “My advice to other Facilities Managers would be don’t underestimate your water supply; take it seriously because it can become disrupted. Water is a vital resource that you can’t physically run a business without, so find out what your site needs, put contingencies in place, and test them on a regular basis.”
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